This couple hired me to shoot their wedding day photo session. It was an interesting experience shooting with a photographer other than Katie. It made me realise two things - #1 That Katie is an awesome photographer and I'm so fortunate to shoot along side her - #2 Much respect to those who work with photographers to whom they are not married.

This clip is also the first one I've edited using Final Cut Pro. I decided in February that I'd make the most of my Macbook Pro and purchase Final Cut Studio rather than editing with Premiere in Boot Camp. I'm loving FCP so far, especially the added stability and reliability, plus working in OS X.

Feedback is most welcome but don't go looking for a story in this clip, it's all rock and roll + eye candy! :) And please excuse the self-indulgent Steadicam shot at the end. I was just so stoked to pull it off with a handheld Merlin that I had to include it :)

Exceptional eye candy of a job Matthew. Enjoyed it. I think you could have mixed up the type of shots when each person of bridal party was on the screen individually. It was all medium shots one after the other. Should have thrown in WS, CU, you get the gist. Besides that everything else was great. Thanks for sharing.

Matthew!
that quite a Photosession I must say! very dynamic, man I wish we'd have locations like that in Moscow, also guys never wear black toxidos here, everyone in different outfits, in this wedding, it makes it so much more uniformal in a good way for photographic purposes.

Good job, possibly a little bit too much flares, but it goes well with overall lively mood!

Hi Matthew,
Nice vid love the colours.
Have a question, now that you're using FCP how are you finding rendering out to sd mpeg via compressor if that's what you use.

Cheers

I've only done a couple of DVDs since so I'm not an expert. I just export a self-contained Quicktime file from FCP using Current Settings. Import that file into Compressor and use one of the DVD Mpeg-2 presets that I've tweaked slightly. So far I've been quite happy with the results.

matthew... thanks for sharing. That was awesome. My favorite shot was probably the one with the B&G centered in front of a building with the groomsman and bridesmaids on each side. Simple, but looked awesome. The music was a great choice.

Some good stuff in there. I felt like the 'film burn' effect was overused a bit, and you lost some heads here and there, but good stuff overall.

The merlin shot was impressive, since that's what I use and I know how hard it is to run around in a circle with that thing and keep it on track AND not show your footsteps crashing down. Even so, I would have definitely cut that shot MUCH earlier. I know you're proud of the shot, and you should be, but from an outside perspective it just goes on for far too long and there's nothing to be gained from the scene. If the couple was really into each other and lost in each other's eyes then it might work, but it's too obvious that they are just posing for you, so I would cut it much sooner. Also, near the end you get some jitters from your footsteps, so definitely cut before that becomes visible. The merlin is so hard to operate at a good speed without advertising your footsteps.

The merlin is so hard to operate at a good speed without advertising your footsteps.
Thanks for sharing, man!

See this is where the Glidecam and the extra 15 pounds it adds helps to smooth everything out. :-)

I just finished a wedding today where i used the glidecam even more than in the past. I've got it set up on QR plates so I can pop it off my MultiRig and onto the Glidecam in about 15 seconds. I ended up flying a lot for the dancing, but it was a fun crowd, so I find it hard to just sit back.

That was fun to watch. I think the strongest element in this clip was "colours". I liked the different colours you had all throughout it, and the change of scenery. From the city to the mountain top.

I also like the merlin shot you managed to pull off amazingly, but i do have to agree with Travis that it was just a tad too long, but i think leaving it in the couple will still love it. The only thing i would've added to this great film, when you show the bridal party one after the other, having their name show up with a "shaky" effect to them would've filled in that nice empty space next to them.

I am also a premiere user and i'm trying to convince myself to move over to FCP, but i can't seem to justify the need to. What ever i can make on the MAC and can acheive the same result on the PC. So why in your opinion should one migrate to the other platform? Is output image quality higher from compressor than adobe media Encoder?

That was fun to watch. I think the strongest element in this clip was "colours". I liked the different colours you had all throughout it, and the change of scenery. From the city to the mountain top.

I also like the merlin shot you managed to pull off amazingly, but i do have to agree with Travis that it was just a tad too long, but i think leaving it in the couple will still love it. The only thing i would've added to this great film, when you show the bridal party one after the other, having their name show up with a "shaky" effect to them would've filled in that nice empty space next to them.

I am also a premiere user and i'm trying to convince myself to move over to FCP, but i can't seem to justify the need to. What ever i can make on the MAC and can acheive the same result on the PC. So why in your opinion should one migrate to the other platform? Is output image quality higher from compressor than adobe media Encoder?

Thanks again for sharing mister top dog aka top 25 DVevent.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to watch the clip, and for the feedback.

Carl and Joe - Here's a few of my reasons for moving to Final Cut Pro

- I already had a Macbook Pro on which I used Premiere via Bootcamp - so, I figured by purchasing Final Cut Studio I could better utilise the laptop and enjoy the benefits of OS X as well.

- On the PC I was having a heck of a time editing footage from my 5D Mark II. I've found it much easier using FCP. I seriously love FCP's multi-format timeline for mixing the 5D footage with my A1's

- Mostly I was just tired of the constant crashes and stupid unexplainable errors I encountered on the PC

So far I'm really enjoying using FCP, especially the reliability. In 2 months I haven't had one crash or stupid error. I do miss the inter-operability and 'dynamic link' of the Adobe products but not enough to put up with the PC annoyances.

It isn't really a matter of FCP enabling me to make better videos. The reliability means a less stress post-production experience for me when compared to my PC's.